I'm guessing the old thread will be moved or merged here soon, so I'll skip any thread intro for now.

I think I've got games going with all our active GT players, but if you play the game an you're not playing me, I'm 'wonderpug' in the game a well.

On to strategy talk.

wtf do I do when this happens?

We're 35 rounds in, 7 cards left in my deck and just 1 left in ritt's.

I struggle against crystal-focused strategies (which ritt favors) in general, but this particular map with one crystal each is particularly tough, especially as Elves vs Council.

We've been pretty even the whole game, but now that he's ended up planting his knights on the crystal damage tiles, and with healers in tow, it seems pretty hopeless.

Earlier in the game, even having a weapon upgraded impaler with a scroll wouldn't result in a knight knockout, let alone a knockout + stomp. I've had some success in other matches trying to take down clerics ASAP, but in this match ritt saved these two for the very end.

That was what happened a few turns prior. Spear-yanked them off the tiles, killed a healer, ended up with the above. I know one spear-gal I just lost to take out his other healer (and a wizard? Can't remember exactly) but I don't remember how I lost the other.

It'll help some if/when they add the ability to see what cards are left in a deck, because I would've proceeded differently if I remembered how many healers he had already used.

On a side note I notice I seem to blast through my units so much faster than everyone else. Another game I have going I thought I had won, we were killing each other off one after another, and I was left with my ninja. I killed his last guy on the board and thought it was over.... but then saw he had THIRTEEN reinforcements lol. And my ninja is sitting right at his base so I expect to be toast when I return.

After a ton of games I still feel as though crystal rushing is too easy. They need to either up crystal health, decrease the effectiveness of the attack squares or do away with them completely. As it is now, a first move Council crystal pusher need only throw a knight on the attack square and you can pretty much call it game/set/match.

(if these images are showing huge instead of at 400px wide, someone let me know. They should all be resized in imgur but I still have giganto ones cached)

game/set/match?

I just had Kato and Rittchard both have first move, and both plant knights on crystal damage squares very early. It's a strong position, but game over?

With this

I had a scroll the means to knock out the knight. But then the cleric would resurrect him, heal him to full, and the knight would be right back on the square. Instead:

One cleric down and stomped. I'm certainly going to lose my impaler next round, but I have plenty of other damage dealing options and he only has 3 clerics for healing. Now his cleric in the top left has to cover both the archer and the knight, making her more likely to end up someplace I can attack (or make him spend more turns moving units around), or he has to bring out his third and final cleric early on.

Similarly this:

Made me do this:

I could've eaten her, but ending my wraith's turn there would have certainly spelt his doom next turn. This way he either has to spend one of his few healing potions to rez her, or he has to bring out another one early on.

But for an even better example, stay tuned to see how my hopeless situation in the top post turned out!

Oh noes! Upgraded knights on both tile upgrades! And they're upgraded against magic when I have mostly magic damager dealers! Time to rage quit! Or...

Necromancer gets upgraded, heavily damages (but doesn't kill) bottom knight. Ritt brings bottom right healer closer to help out, necromancer then takes out healer. Other fighting ensues, but without that healing I'm able to turn bottom knight into a phantom.

The necromancer then completely ignores top knight and goes nutso trying to kill the other healer and his damage dealing wizard. My crystal takes damage from wizard chains, but I have to take the hits.

He tries to have his other knight go for the crystal while the other one keeps on that tile, but without the helmet I can take him out quickly. Crystal took major damage, but

Without the healers, the upgraded knight can't last forever, and elves get the win.

As I mentioned in the original post, I really thought I was done for here. Crystals die on this map easier than any other, even with just one crystal damage tile activated. I still won't be surprised if knights get nerfed a bit in the next patch, but I don't think things are nearly as imbalanced as you're thinking.

(if these images are showing huge instead of at 400px wide, someone let me know. They should all be resized in imgur but I still have giganto ones cached)

game/set/match?

I just had Kato and Rittchard both have first move, and both plant knights on crystal damage squares very early. It's a strong position, but game over?

With this

I had a scroll the means to knock out the knight. But then the cleric would resurrect him, heal him to full, and the knight would be right back on the square. Instead:

One cleric down and stomped. I'm certainly going to lose my impaler next round, but I have plenty of other damage dealing options and he only has 3 clerics for healing. Now his cleric in the top left has to cover both the archer and the knight, making her more likely to end up someplace I can attack (or make him spend more turns moving units around), or he has to bring out his third and final cleric early on.

Similarly this:

Made me do this:

I could've eaten her, but ending my wraith's turn there would have certainly spelt his doom next turn. This way he either has to spend one of his few healing potions to rez her, or he has to bring out another one early on.

But for an even better example, stay tuned to see how my hopeless situation in the top post turned out!

Notice I said pretty much. Of course there are things you can do but first move has a huge advantage especially for a crystal pusher.

My match with Kato isn't going too too horribly, but the one with ritt is going as you foretold.

In other news, I'm currently participating in the first Penny Arcade forum tournament for this game, and it's been interesting seeing some tactics that I haven't seen used much with GTers yet.

Void monks, for instance, I had almost completely written off as only being good for sacrificial offerings for Fluffy to eat, but I'm seeing now that when he's upgraded well his regeneration can make him just about as tough to kill as a knight, and more damaging.

They definitely at least need some way to make it so new players can first play against other equally new players. I keep worrying I'm scaring away potential additions to the player pool when I obliterate newbies from random matches.

They definitely at least need some way to make it so new players can first play against other equally new players. I keep worrying I'm scaring away potential additions to the player pool when I obliterate newbies from random matches.

I don't know, I don't really get quick wins. I'm talking about when it seems like I've been randomly paired against someone who is playing council with the default avatar, likely playing their very first match ever. They don't get how stomping works and give me wraith/phantom fodder, or they do thinks like (all real examples)

attack with a unit twice, give him a sword, then attack a third time

use a fireball scroll on a single unit, one that just as easily could have been damaged by someone else

move a unit somewhere and then back to the original spot in one turn

use a scroll on someone, charge him onto my side without attacking, then ending the turn somewhere where I can kill him

you get the picture

.I did plenty of my own dumb stuff in first matches, but for the most part I was playing other people just as inexperienced, making the same mistakes I did.

They definitely at least need some way to make it so new players can first play against other equally new players. I keep worrying I'm scaring away potential additions to the player pool when I obliterate newbies from random matches.

Whats your quickest win?

I don't remember mine for sure, but I've slaughtered a few people in games where I had a really good opening set of pieces. Didn't lose a point on any crystal or get any more than the opening reinforcements. Pug has won about 99% of our games but there was one where I seemed to just plow through him in a very short number of turns. I take screenshots of the very few I beat him in lol.

Of course I've also played some really long games and have lost a lot of them. I tend to lose the attrition types of games. One of my favorites I think was with skystride, it got down to the absolute very last unit and ounce of health. On the save screen it looks like he's lost, you can't see any health in his bar and mine is like 95% full, but he ended killing every one of my guys lol.

I still believe this game is an absolutely incredibly well balanced one, given the amount of things that can happen and the randomization of what you are dealt and when. Every time I think I 've seen everything someone comes up with a new move or surprising strategy. Pretty much anything is counterable... if you've got the right pieces to make the counter at the right time. If not, sure, it can seem like the game is unbalanced and there's no counter to XXX.

In the game above that wonderpug was talking about, I thought I pretty much had it in the bag. But somehow he neutralized all my key offensive units one at a time, and ended up devastating me essentially with a single stupid necromancer dude.

Pug has won about 99% of our games but there was one where I seemed to just plow through him in a very short number of turns.

The replay says it was 16 rounds, but it felt way way faster. I think you may have cheated.

I sure hope they release the next team soon so that they can keep their popularity momentum going. The official twitter feed is saying things like "soon, soon" and "X feature didn't make it into the next patch", so I'm thinking it's not too too far away.

As a couple of you may have seen, I've been experimenting with upgrading priestesses and using them offensively and it's going better than I expected. Damage-wise she's exactly the same as the necromancer, it's just that you trade range and phantom-raising for the damage nerf curse. The short range means she's more likely to suffer a counter-attack, but if she manages to tag all the possible attackers they usually can't do enough damage to kill her the next turn, and then she can regen back to full on the next turn while re-tagging everyone.

"The dwarves hail from distant fortresses of stone, seeking wealth and glory through victory at the Hero Academy. Dwarves are extremely crafty and gain improved bonuses from the playfield's premium squares. They are masters of area attacks."

PALADIN

(Class: Fighter) - Holy warrior who can heal and revive allies, healing herself in the process

GUNNER

(Class: Shooter) - Shooter who deals high damage to a nearby enemy. AOE damage at range.

I am slow these days due to crunch at work. Had an epic game against a friend where I was crystal rushing and he was guarding with a buffed necro. He took down unit after unit of mine going for crystals. By the end he had eight(!) phantoms on the board against me and had blocked off effective routes. I did not realize that phantoms made by a buffed necro have more health than normal ones. The final blow came when I had my last two units in range of an impaler. I also didn't realize impalers could shoot over friendly phantoms. Doh!

Dwarves are crazy! I think Rittchard has found his new favorite team, because the dwarves are ridiculously good at crystal killing. The extra bonus on tile boosts added to the insane insane amount of AOE... combined with a spell specifically geared toward attacking crystals... it's insane.

The flipside seems to be that most of the units are low health and low damaging, at least against single targets. Even their super unit only has 650 hp at the outset.

Also, balance changes for Elves & Council:

Knights health reduced 200hp so that it's at least possible to kill a fully armored guy in one turn with a scroll.

Wizards get 10% innate magic resist

Necromancer Phantoms have 100hp less so they should always be killable in one shot

Void Monks can walk 3 steps instead of 2, also have splash damage increased to 66%

.Knights needed a nerf and void monks needed a boost, but I hope they didn't overdo it. I was starting to get the hang of making good use of void monks as-is, so this change seems huge to me.